What Happens When You Don't Listen to Your Customers?

You lose money. In some cases, a lot of money. Porsche’s Big EV U-Turn Wipes Out Billions And Sparks Investor Panic

The abandoned EV agenda also means the VW Group is going to take a near €3 billion hit

Volkswagen and Porsche are both German companies. The structure of all of the companies and brands that make up the "Volkwagen Group" isn't clear to me, but they include Volkswagen, Porsche, Bently, Audi, Lamborghini, Bugatti, and more. Actually it is "Bugatti Rimac" so I'm not sure if that is what I am thinking of, or not.

It turns out that Porsche’s aggressive push into the world of EVs has not paid off the way the company hopped. In fact, the automaker admitted that its heavy commitment to EVs, followed by a sudden change of course, carved a €1.8 billion ($2.1 billion) hole in its operating profit. Investors reacted quickly, and Porsche shares in Frankfurt tumbled by as much as 9.3 percent, the sharpest intraday fall since its high-profile 2022 listing.

Buyers of luxury and sports cars are not buying electric versions.

Auto analyst Matthias Schmidt told the publication that buyers “are putting little value on luxury electric cars,” which explains Porsche’s return to high-margin combustion models. Citi analyst Harald Hendrikse was even more direct, pointing out that “Porsche has now been disappointing investors for over two years. It is hard to conclude that these disappointments have now completed.”

If you need a car to run errands, or drive a short distance to work, then an EV may work for you. If you need to drive long distances, or tow heavy loads, then they probably don't work.

I still have problems with the environmental devastation in South America and Indonesia and China that support EVs, and I have a REAL problem with the child labor in the cobalt mines in the Africa. I also have a problem with the fire risk of current battery tech, but that is a story for another day. (And they are working on that)

Since I don't understand how the Volkswagen Group is structured, I'm a bit confused by the financial data I am seeing. Except one thing is clear. Porsche isn't making any or not much money. It's net profit in 2024 was zero. This article (and a few others I looked at) don't make me think 2025 is going to be a whole lot better.

Hat tip to MGUY Australia and the video Porsche's EV plans COLLAPSE as it creeps back to combustion. He also has a link to a similar article about Bentley, also part of the VW Group.